Chapter 44 #2
“Why is it so big?” I doubted I’d ever seen a bigger lantern before.
“Come on, let me show you something.” He let go of my waist, took my hand, and walked us over to the lantern.
“I’m not sure who made it or why. My best bet is that it was made for an old Turning Trial at one point. Sit down,” he told me, and fell on one knee in front of the giant lantern. “The stone gets warm right away. Sit.”
I did.
I watched in awe as he put both hands onto the fogged-up glass of the lantern and released magic into it.
“What are you doing?” There was already a fire burning in there, though it was small and pale.
“I only learned three nights ago that if you give it magic, this happens.” March was smiling. His eyes, half red and half chocolate-brown, were sparkling. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him as excited before. He sat down with me when his magic faded on the surface of the lantern and said, “Watch.”
I was still looking at him, at the way the light hit his profile, the way he glowed in my eyes—until the light began to flicker.
Then I looked at the lantern, and I was in awe all over again.
The glass was no longer as fogged up but much clearer.
The flame in the middle of it was much brighter, more golden, and pieces of it were detaching like layers, pure light reshaping itself into these little figurines no taller than my hand.
They were shaped like people, men and women, except they had wings on their backs, too, and when they flew, they left a trail of golden glitter behind.
“Time’s Teeth—what is that?!”
“I think they’re fairies,” March said, watching the little lights as they flew around the flame, dancing as they went.
So graceful. So beautiful. The figures were dancing to a melody we couldn’t hear, and their shadows were as big as us when they cast through the glass and onto the walls of the balcony.
“I found drawings in a book at the library. They were believed to be creatures from another world that came through here at one point—through what the books call The Rabbit Hole,” March said.
“Another world?” I said in wonder, my eyes on the fairies, at least twenty of them dancing around the fire. When their shadows fell on me, it felt like they were caressing me.
“Yes. You remember Darton’s theory on timelines,” he said, and I nodded.
We all learned about it in school. Darton was a Timekeeper, a philosopher who lived some six centuries ago, and according to him, Time supplied a lot of worlds in the universe, not just ours.
According to him, all timelines in all worlds happened at the same time—we just didn’t remember.
There was an infinite number of versions to everything and everyone, continuously, forever.
“Well, according to this book, there are these Rabbit Holes, like portals that have been used to cross over worlds and timelines. These little creatures were one of them. People like us, too—but without the ability to use Sparetime to do magic.”
I shook my head, in awe at the very idea. “They’re amazing,” I whispered, and now I was so entranced by their every movement that I couldn’t look away if I tried.
“They are. I’ve been wanting to show you. It just never seemed to be the right time,” March said.
I understood exactly what he meant. The past days had been…strange, to say the least. I’d sat on the bed or on the floor, meaning to do something but I just couldn’t figure out what or when it needed doing.
“We’re forgetting, Heartling,” I whispered because I knew it was true. Not just because Mimi said so, but because I felt it.
I felt the absence of what I once knew.
“Is that what that is,” March said, and it wasn’t a question. He wasn’t surprised, either.
“I don’t remember a lot of things, I think.”
His hand fell over mine on my lap as we watched the fairies dancing still, now slower, though, like they were able to match what we felt.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d forgotten you, too. It’s why I came looking for you. I didn’t dare try to remember by myself.”
“You would have,” he said without hesitation.
“I’m not worried about forgetting you, Velvet.
You’re in here.” Through the corner of my eye, I saw him tapping his temple.
“I see you sitting there by the lake. I hear you breathing. As long as you’re in there, I’ll never forget. I’ll always be grounded.”
My eyes closed and I hadn’t realized they were full of tears until they slid down my cheeks and cleared the view of the dancing fairies.
Slowly, I leaned to the side, put my head on his shoulder and breathed.
March wrapped an arm around me and pulled me all the way to his lap with ease, as if I weighed nothing.
The stone had indeed gotten warm, just like he said, but his lap was so much better.
He sat cross-legged and positioned me so that I was between his legs, and it was like that place was made for me.
I fit perfectly—and between his arms, too.
He wrapped me up like a blanket, held me to his chest, and the smell of him, of rain and roses, filled me from head to toe.
I wanted to close my eyes, to get lost in the feel of him, but I also wanted to see the dancing fairies.
“I never want to forget this,” I said and tried not to feel the dread of knowing I might.
“We won’t.” March kissed the top of my head, my forehead. “As long as we’re in each other’s minds, we won’t forget.”
And I believed him. I did. I was thankful even for the memory of him being stabbed in the arm, too. It didn’t scare me, not right now. It was him, and I would always remember.
He continued to kiss my forehead, and then I raised my head a little bit, and his lips fell on the bridge of my nose. Then I raised my head a little more, and his lips fell on the tip. I turned, and he kissed my cheek, then the other.
Then I raised my chin, and his lips fell on mine. It was perfect. The perfect sensation. The perfect position.
We kissed slowly. We took our time to explore one another, licking, biting, sucking gently. I wanted to know every inch of him like the back of my hand. I wanted to know how he felt, how he smelled, how he whispered, how he moaned, in every possible scenario.
My fingers were in his hair, and I’d sat up without realizing it.
We were chest to chest, and he helped me move, carrying me with ease until I was straddling him.
My ankles locked behind him, and his arms squeezed me to his chest harder.
The kiss became more urgent with every passing second, as the shadows of the dancing fairies slowly faded away.
My body was on fire. Now that I was no longer terrified of forgetting him, I wanted to remember more. My hand slipped underneath the collar of his shirt and down to his naked back. He moaned into my mouth and my hips moved faster, rubbing against him, my center against his hard cock.
Holy Hour, I never wanted to stop doing this. It was better than anything I’d ever felt, and with everything he gave me, I wanted more.
His hands were on my ass, and he guided my grinding against him. We were a mess of moans and soft cries, biting and tasting each other on our tongues like we were suddenly in a rush.
“March,” I breathed, and it felt both odd and natural to call out his name. “I need you,” I said as he bit the side of my neck and went lower. “I need you right now.”
With a groan, March moved us, and suddenly we were standing. The fairies were still dancing inside that lantern, but he was taking us to the other side of the balcony. My legs were locked around his hips, my arms firmly around his neck, so he didn’t even need to hold me up. I was never letting go.
Then March slowly lowered to his knees, and I felt his magic vibrating as it came down his arms. I let go of his lips for a second to see what he was doing. “What are you—”
Red slipped from his hands, and he aimed his magic at the wall covered in green. The roots, the ivy, the leaves responded. They began to extend from the wall and to the stone floor right beneath us.
“March,” I warned because it took a lot of minutes to make something grow this size, but March didn’t seem to care how much magic he spent. Instead, he lowered me to the floor slowly, except it wasn’t stone anymore—it was a bed made of leaves and glowing flowers and soft roots.
They were spreading over as well, not just under.
They were extending from the top of the wall on our side, creating a canopy over us before they slowly descended halfway toward the floor, while the roots from below reached out to meet them, too.
They’d wrapped us in a green cocoon almost completely, leaving only a few inches of space before closing completely to let the light from the lantern, and the shadows of the dancing fairies through.
“Is this comfortable for you, Velvet?” March whispered, standing on all fours over me, searching my eyes, waiting.
I grabbed his face in my hands. “It’s perfect.”
March smiled. “Good. Because your bed is way too far,” he said and leaned in to kiss me.
The gears and the cogs in my stomach turned and turned. He was right—the beds were way too far, and I was glad, because this was better than anything I could have imagined.
I pulled him to me harder, wanting to feel all his weight on me, but March still wouldn’t come closer.
He kissed me slowly and moved one hand to my neck, down to my chest to cup my breasts, then lower.
He pulled my tunic up and slipped his hand under, and I cried out to tell him that I needed him to move faster.
He chuckled when he let go of my lips to sit up for a moment. “So impatient,” he whispered, pulling his shirt over his head. He took it off in one swift movement, and then he was naked from the hips up, and I was salivating. “So greedy, Velvet…”
His eyes sparkled like precious jewels. He wrapped his shirt into a bundle and leaned closer again, put his hand under my head and pulled me up gently, put his shirt underneath as a pillow. Kissed my forehead, nose, lips and chin, all the while pulling my tunic up higher.
“Faster, Heartling. Faster,” I begged, and that widened the smile on his face even more.
“I want to take my time with you, though. Savor every second you give me. Let me take my time, Velvet,” he whispered, then pulled me up again to take my tunic off.
I eagerly held up my arms, and when I lay down again, the roots and leaves and flowers underneath me were softer than I expected—or I just didn’t care.
“I promise I’ll make it worth it,” March whispered, his eyes on fire as he undid the button of my pants, then pulled them off me together with my panties.
I wanted to be shy. I wanted to cover up, but the way he looked at me didn’t let me.
He was in awe of every new inch of skin he revealed, and he looked completely entranced by the sight of my naked body.
And while he pulled off my boots and pants, I reached to unclasp my bra and take it off, too.
I didn’t want clothes between us, not a single thread.
This time, I wanted to feel all of him on all of me, because the trial was tomorrow—the last trial.
And who knew when we’d be together like this again, when we lived across the realm from one another?
It had to be him. It had to be March. My body, my heart, my every cell demanded it.
So, I watched him put my clothes away, then come over me again, no longer smiling but vulnerable in a way I hadn’t seen him before. Like he was serving me himself. Like he was telling me he was mine.
I took it.
My hands were on his face automatically, and for a moment there we just looked at one another, breathed together while the shadows of the dancing fairies faded more and more. I could have sworn I heard the melody they danced to just now, and it beat in rhythm with my heart.
Then March leaned in to kiss me, and the world fell away.
He kissed me gently and with urgency at the same time, and once he’d had his fill of my lips, he stopped to kiss my face, every inch of it, like he really wanted to savor my every second.
I let him, didn’t rush him again because I wanted to savor his every second, too, I realized. Just in case, if this was indeed the last time.
He kissed my neck and my collarbone, fell on top of me to play with my breasts, tasting my nipples the way he did when he had me in my own bed.
I lived for the way his lips, his teeth, his tongue worshipped my body.
And I watched him move lower and lower in awe until his face was right between my legs.
He kissed my pussy the way he did my mouth—like he was giving his everything into it, like it was the most important thing he would ever do.
He teased me with his fingers, whispered praise to me every now and again about how soft I was, how good I tasted, how Time must have created me especially for him.
I’d believe it. The way he felt didn’t really leave room for any other option.
My eyes were wide open, and the entire scene felt like it was picked out of a dream, but it wasn’t.
It was real, and the closer he brought me to the edge, the more aware I was of every root, every leaf, every flower that had cocooned us in so perfectly.
The canopy over us wasn’t too dense, and I saw the sky, too, saw the twinkling stars as they winked at me, saw the slow movements of the shadows of the dancing fairies that had all but faded away completely.
When I came, I called out his name, my eyes on the stars shining among the leaves and the flowers, merging together, creating a whole new world just for me.
That was a moment I was never going to forget in my whole life, no matter what came tomorrow.